Thai Crab Cakes

Crab is one of the most popular foods in Weymouth and Portland during the summer months, almost every restaurant, café, bistro etc. will offer crab whether it be just a basic crab sandwich or salad you do not have to go far to find crab on a menu. In fact you can even go down to the harbour and go crab fishing like I have done myself as well as take my nephew as it is great fun for children. Almost every day on my walk down to work I see children and their parents all along the harbour with their crab lines out and walking around showing off their catch of the day.

As well as crab, mackerel is very popular to catch and there is even mackerel fishing trips available down by the harbour, but I’m going to stick to crab for this post as I have decided to share my Thai crab cake recipe with you.

This dish is just a simple starter but the cakes can always be made bigger and into a main course just be sure to adjust cooking times accordingly.

Thai crab cakes ingredients:

1 bowl of crab meat ½ white meat ½ brown meat

1 lemongrass stalk sliced finely

1 small knob of ginger, peeled and grated

2 birds eye chillies finely sliced

1 garlic clove pureed

2 spring onions finely sliced

1 small handful of coriander chopped

3 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce

1 lime, zest and juice

Breadcrumbs to help bind

Flour, egg and breadcrumbs   to coat

Lime wedges, sweet chilli sauce and coriander to serve

To make just mix all the ingredients for the crab cakes together apart from the breadcrumbs.

Then mix some breadcrumbs in if the mix is a bit wet in texture as it needs to be able to form into cakes, add enough breadcrumbs until the mix is good enough to mould into shape

For my crab cakes I have decided to breadcrumb them but they work just as well if you just wanted to flour them and then shallow fry them, finishing them in the oven if need be, but if you want to breadcrumb them you will need to set up flour, egg wash and breadcrumbs.

First of all mould the shape and size you want and put them in the seasoned flour and lightly cover, then shake off any excess flour, usually I do this too all the cakes then do the egg and breadcrumbs separate or have someone who can help with the egg and breadcrumbs as your hands will get very messy if you do all of it together.

Next it goes into the whisked egg mix then into the breadcrumbs, if you feel that the mix has not got enough breadcrumbs in you could always double pane by dipping the crab cakes back into the egg and then the breadcrumbs again. Once you have done this too all your crab cakes they are ready to cook

Cook the cakes at 170 c for about 6 minutes depending on the size use a temperature probe to check if they are ready, if they are quite big and are going dark on the outside but still not cooked in the middle you could finish them in the oven on a fairly low temperature to ensure they are fully cooked. Once cooked briefly dry on kitchen paper so they are not too greasy and serve. I have decided to serve mine with a little sweet chilli sauce some fresh lime and coriander leaf.